Nikon D1 Review

Clean & sharp images

The D1 was the first digital SLR to bring us such a smooth
clean image, the Kodak DCS's certainly had relatively clean images but
there was always the underlying annoyance of blue channel noise. The crops
below are a very basic example of how the D1 keeps flat areas clean and
smooth while maintaining detail and sharpness. This is true of both ISO
200 and 400, noise really only becomes apparent at ISO 800 and higher.

Colour

Not long after the D1 first hit the streets we started
to read complaints from owners about a "magenta cast" or colour
shift, hunting for the answer to this question many people came up with
methods of correction such as Photoshop Actions, third party programs
and other systems. Later we established that probably the best method
for correction was a profile to profile conversion from NTSC to whatever
your output space happens to be (sRGB if you're producing images for web
publication).

This is certainly the method I prefer to use, but it begs
the question, why? After consulting Nikon we got this answer:

When the D1's colour is set up (tuning colour by matching
the colour seen on a monitor against reference patches) the engineers
use monitors which have NTSC phosphors. Nikon re-iterated that this does
not mean the D1 is shooting in any defined colourspace (certainly not
NTSC 1953), however the NTSC profile conversion should produce the closest
match to the initial intention. For exact colour space output Nikon recommend
using RAW file format and Nikon Capture (which allows you to select the
output colour space).

Here are some more examples of D1 JPEG originals run through
this procedure:

Original JPEG (NTSC 1953)

After profile conversion (sRGB)

Original JPEG (NTSC 1953)

After profile conversion (sRGB)

Once you understand why the colours straight out of the
camera look the way they do and you get some colour correction procedure
into your workflow the D1's colours are as good as (if not better than)
any other, accurate, vibrant yet not overpowering or oversaturated. I
personally didn't and don't have a problem with the D1's colour once I
introduced the profile conversion into my workflow.

Dynamic Range

Dynamic range simply defines the range of light the camera
is able to capture before it either loses detail in darkness (shadows
for example) or blows out a highlight (edges of chromed metals are good
examples of this). Most consumer digital cameras only have a 8-bit analog
to digital converters, plus their CCD's are not built to have a particularly
large dynamic range. The D1's sensor has a 12-bit analog to digital converter.

Metering, as we'd expect was excellent (at ISO 200),
Nikon's much lauded Matrix metering system working extremely well, if
you're uncomfortable with that or have other requirements you also have
center-weighted average and spot metering (which can also be customised).
We found that at higher ISO's a positive exposure compensation was required
to produce a good exposure (across the whole brightness scale), typically
in the region of +0.7 EV for ISO 400 and higher for higher ISO's.

These results reflect what we've seen in pictures from
the camera, very wide dynamic range with noticeably better performance
shooting RAW, indeed RAW D1 images at ISO 200 and 400 have the widest
dynamic range of any digital SLR we've tested, only to be beaten by the
Fujifilm S1 Pro at ISO 800 and 1600.

Night photography

The D1 is really VERY good for night photography, the
below samples are both 15 and 30 seconds, certainly there's some noise
visible noise in the 30 second exposure but nothing too imposing. The
15 second shot is almost completely clean with lots of detail and a really
amazing exposure. Top marks for the D1 at night.

Comments

I used one of these in 2002 when I worked as a reporter/photographer for a community newspaper. It was, for its time, a pretty incredible machine even three years after it was introduced.

Compared to the Canon PowerShot A40 that I had just received quite excitedly as a college graduation gift, the D1 I used at work was like something out of a science fiction movie. It was lightning fast to focus and shoot, it had crazy low-light ability (ISO 1600), and the f2.8 AF-S zoom lenses that the newspaper had to go along with it were stellar.

Today with the improvements in sensor technology, you can get similar image quality in a smart phone (with a lot more resolution), and the professional DSLRs are just leaps and bounds ahead.

It's impossible to overstate just how significant a camera the D1 was for photojournalism and photography in general. Total game changer.